Vivianne Miedema scores 100th international goal for Netherlands

Vivianne Miedema has reached 100 goals for the Netherlands, bringing up her international century with a gorgeous strike against Wales in her side's opening UEFA Women's EURO 2025 match. Our Netherlands reporter Derek Brookman takes a look at this Dutch scoring phenomenon...

The signs were there from very early on. In only her second match for the Oranjeleeuwinnen, Miedema came on as a 75th-minute substitute against Portugal in October 2013 – and promptly scored a hat-trick.

A year later, and having only just turned 18, she helped the Netherlands win the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship by scoring six at the finals, three times as many as anyone else.

It's been a similar story ever since. The Manchester City striker, formerly of Arsenal, Bayern and Heerenveen, just can't stop finding the net. She broke the Dutch international women's scoring record while still only 22, with her 60th goal. Her haul in an orange shirt includes four hat-tricks, four goals in one game, and six in another. And she still holds the scoring record (ten) for the Olympic Games.

Miedema registered her 98th and 99th goals for her country in the Netherlands' final match before travelling to Switzerland, a 2-1 victory against fellow tournament hopefuls Finland in Leeuwarden. Having just returned from an injury picked up after coming on against a substitute against Austria in April, she was taken off with just over an hour gone.

It was maybe just as well that she didn't stay on to possibly score a third. "My mother wasn't there today, nor was my brother," she told NOS after the game. "So we have to wait a bit longer." But not too much longer. Next time out, against Wales, she reached a magnificent century – and her entire family were in Switzerland to witness it.

Asked to reflect on her century at full-time, the Netherlands forward told womenseuro.com about the kind of goals she likes scoring most. "As long as they hit the back of the net, it’s fine with me," said Miedema. "But if I had to choose, I always want to be the player finishing a great attacking move."

Then, picking out her favourite from her 100 international goals, the No9 pointed to her second goal in the 2017 final triumph against Denmark. "It’s obviously not the best goal I’ve ever scored, but it is by far the most special. Just to finish the game off. I think you can see on everyone‘s faces that, at that moment, we knew that we’d won the EURO."